Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

{"currencyCode":"USD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":49,"ASIN":"B0002CZV82","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":10.7,"ASIN":"B001PGXKC8","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":9.09,"ASIN":"B00191WVF6","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"B0002CZV82::5iesj6zwKbsOh%2BXkqycg7vw29269hT%2FhNYQMAXvBcyjQrV89gYj9KQk21XQhFerfdeZJCfcV6UF%2FaekIfX0JpPkU9lGQbVVPb0g4YTQLfN6XDyaN8QsIRJfQ%2BIRgf0fCPeSlUqNLCMyR%2FfhIPAJB1wD3sY2p0EcU,B001PGXKC8::V4B4k2vojP6VmR%2BVaTAoGK9%2B%2F%2ByMcj8DEGqzTEB0pUE1e4GStT27hGYiVLfJwiQBWI%2BFMrqZT8TnjHRJ93CEpR1IY85cA8uqjg8If4xtAUKAYkk9i8H8aw%3D%3D,B00191WVF6::%2BUb1a8S29UQ5tW%2BiXswZzp3%2BduP6BZhskHsS8ZKOlE2eEbygHLf3fab038ra%2FtxH3GxFepBWzTtlwn%2FpgrwjCG6iiYm94Yg6vmri8Q%2BjWpJmuvz84O3P4w%3D%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","xy":"same","yz":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z","w"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List","Add all four to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart","Add all four to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:","Price For All Four:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items","Pre-order all four items"]}}

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Buy Used and Save:
Buy a Used "Boss DS1 Distortion Guitar Pedal” from Amazon Warehouse Deals and save 43% off the $78.50 list price. Product is eligible for Amazon's 30-day returns policy and Prime or FREE Shipping.
See all Used offers from Amazon Warehouse Deals.

Product Description

Here it is. The #1 stompbox for legions of crunch-craving guitarists all over the planet. This DS-1 distortion pedal is a time-proven mainstay of rock and metal tone, no doubt about it. Three knobs make way for practically every rock sound you've ever heard. If you dig it loud and distorted, you've simply got to have a DS-1 in your rig. And that's that.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

From Greg Abrams review, entitled "For all but the tone snobs," a review further down on this product's page:

"Alright, so you want to get a good (if somewhat "basic") distortion sound for less than $100? This is your deal."

I strongly disagree. You can find MUCH BETTER distortions for $100 or less, even a few near or under the $40 mark the DS-1 is currently priced at.

I've played guitar for over 10 years. Like many people one of my first pedal purchases was the DS-1. Afterall, everyone talks about them, they're available at any given music store in the nation, you hear about all these famous musicians using them, plus a DS-1 is actually pretty cheap! So I snapped one up just like everyone else. Come to find out that just because something is POPULAR, that doesn't always mean its GOOD (see: Nickelback, the Transformers movie franchise, the Kardashian family, etc...).

So I plugged it in and didn't really care for it. The distortion was harsh, thin, artificial sounding and always noisy. I tried it on both my amps (My practic amp: a solid state Fender Frontman 25R, and my big amp, the B-52 AT100, which is a 100w tube halfstack) It was was not very diverse, and the basic sound was not very likeable to me. I've read the Japanese made DS-1's are better in sound than the newer, made in Taiwan models but, either way, the DS-1 is just not a great pedal in my mind.

But, like many newer players, I didn't know any better at the time. Fast forward a few years and I've bought and sold literally dozens of pedals. There is a whole world of great tones to be found out there if you keep your eyes open.

So here are some pedals I currently own that I like much better than the DS-1.Read more ›

Alright, so you want to get a good (if somewhat "basic") distortion sound for less than $100? This is your deal. If, on the other hand, you're a tone snob who believes that anything other than overhyped and overpriced boutique pedals is garbage, you're probably not looking at this page to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I have some nice boutique pedals and mods (like the Cusack Screamer and the Keeley MT-2) that I would never part with. But here's the thing...the stock DS-1 stands proud even in such company. Why? A few simple observations:

1) Boss has been selling this pedal with great success since 1978, regardless of the fact that...

2) Due to the toughness, you'll likely never need to replace one of these tanks. 2a) There is a profusion of overdrive and distortion pedals on the market, both corporate and boutique varieties.

3) Many outstanding guitar players have used this pedal in the studio and on the road, including Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, etc... Sure, some are using "modified" versions now, like Vai's Keeley edition. But you don't tamper with what you don't like. If the foundation isn't solid, you replace it. I also own the Ibanez Vai Jemini pedal and what they basically did (in my opinion) was take his tube screamer and DS-1 pedals and put them into one box for convenience. Same thing with Satriani's Vox Satchurator pedal. You know someone really loves a pedal when they use it as a template in designing their own signature line. I don't have any proof that they did this, but it does sound like it in a side-by-side comparison.

4) Now consider that the Jemini and Satchurator are $199 and $129, respectively. Nice pedals? Yes. Worth up to four times the DS-1? After using both for a few months, I'm not entirely convinced of that.Read more ›

I can remember when I started playing guitar. My aunt loaned me a classical guitar that she'd bought in college, and never gotten around to learning. For me, it was instant love. I played for hours on end. The next step, get an acoustic guitar of your own. I can still remember how hard it was to play, steel strings, deep calluses. I don't remember exactly when this pedal showed up, sometime in 1993. I do know It was my official initiation to electric guitar. I had a solid state amp, with no distortion. I can remember considering tearing up the speaker cone to make distortion. For $29.95ish this pedal saved my little solid state amp... which was probably worth about the same. As time has gone on I've bought many guitars, amps, pedals, rack effects, etc... This pedal was the first, and is still in use today. It has never crapped out, never made any weird noises, never done anything different from exactly what it did 20 years ago. Let the opinions of others go. Last night I paid for dinner what amazon is charging for this pedal. That meal lasted about 20 minutes. This pedal still sits, holing its own, beside an AnalogMan modded TS9 tube screamer... 20 years later.

Alright, allow me to forego any kind of thesis statement or introduction and simply get down to the point. What you get with this pedal is simple, classic, basic distortion. It's not exteme, and it's not too weak. It's probably what you would sort of call a baseline to compare other pedals to.

If you need just simply distortion; a little overdrive to your sound, then you found it. However, if you want something more indepth, look for something more specific to what you want (Metal Zone, Blues Drive, Tube Screamer, etc), because this pedal is very generic sounding due to it being a pedal that a large fraction of musicians own. It's like the McDonald's of pedals: cheap, easy, and well known.

Bottom Line: Good to use for simple distortion effects, otherwise look elsewhere.